target of reducing its energy consumptionby 10 per cent — which was achieved by2011, well ahead of schedule, mostly byattacking what Whittier called “the low-hanging fruit” like more energy-efficientlighting. The company then set about thetask of achieving what it called “The Next10.” It is on track to achieve that by theend of the 2017, he said.

In July 2017, a year after buying
WB, Vail Resorts announced
its intention to pursue a target
of having its resorts achieve a
zero-net operating footprint by
2030. Under the heading “Epic
Promise for a Zero Footprint,”
the company aims to have zero
waste going to landfills, zero net
emissions and zero net operating
impact to forests and habitat
within 13 years. “Everything we
do at Vail Resorts is driven by the
spectacular natural surroundings
where our employees, guests
and communities live, work and
play. The environment is our
business, and we have a special
obligation to protect it,” Rob
Katz, Vail Resorts chairman and
chief executive officer, said in a
statement issued at the time.

The term “Epic Promise” is aheading under which Vail Resortshas promoted environmental andsocial sustainability for the pastfew years, Whittier said. Everyyear during shoulder season,Vail Resorts properties stagean Epic Promise Week, duringwhich employees and communitymembers volunteer to do cleanupand maintenance in natural areasaround the community. This past fall,WB employees helped AWARE with acommunity garden project and carried outtrail cleanup, De Jong said. Two of theareas where the greatest gains are likelyto occur in the next three years in battlinganthropogenic climate change are moreenergy-efficient snowmaking operationsand more efficient fleets of bothAfter the 1993 incident, WB officialsstarted working with the Associationof Whistler Area Residents for theEnvironment (AWARE), the ResortMunicipality of Whistler, Get Bear Smartand other Whistler groups to improve itsenvironmental performance. “Every stepalong the way, we’ve had partners,” DeJong said.

In the early 2000s, WB became
one of six key resort partners to
become “early adopters” of The
Natural Step, a decision-making
framework created by Swedish
Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt. Under
The Natural Step, planning
decisions go through a series of
four “system conditions” related
to economic, environmental
and social sustainability. WB
collaborated with Innergex in the
mid-2000s on the construction of
the Fitzsimmons Creek micro-hydro project, a 7.9-megawatt
power plant on the creek that
runs between Whistler and
Blackcomb mountains — look
for it as you are crossing on the
Peak 2 Peak Gondola. Completed
in January 2010, it produces an
estimated 32,000 megawatts of
power annually — enough to
power the entire WB operation.

Around the same time, WB
carried out its expansion into the
Symphony Bowl on Whistler
Mountain while cutting down
only five per cent of the trees
inside the expansion area,
as opposed to the typical 40
per cent. “That was another
significant change in terms of
being able to have a much lighter
footprint on the land,” De Jong said.

By the time Vail Resorts bought WB,
there were already some synergies,
Whittier said. More than 20 years ago,
the company began seeking significant
reductions for waste diverted to landfills
from its properties. In 2008, the
Broomfield, Colo.-based company set a